Connecticut Celebrity Makeup Artist, Beauty Expert & Beauty Influencer Brandy Gomez-Duplessis share makeup tips, how to's, on set entertainment & BTS beauty industry pics, bridal makeup, and beauty testimonials, all while living with living with lupus, lyme disease & RA. She share her life of what it's like being a REAL makeup artist in the beauty industry. Brandy is also a Beauty Editor for Caribbean Posh magazine and she writes for the HEARST CT News Blog called Beauty Happy Hour and is a Contributor Beauty Expert for the Today Show. Brandy recently launched Entitled Beauty, a luxurious mineral based makeup line with her business partner Johnny Luoma

Being a beauty expert is something that I have been working on for some time now. I got the itch of being a beauty expert when I spoke on stage at OPRAH O You event in ATL a few years back with L’OREAL Paris.

This morning I was getting hair & makeup ready because I’m doing a beauty segment on air at NBC Connecticut WVIT-TV. My segment is with the gorgeous and talented Kerri-Lee Mayland. I will be speaking about key components to keeping skin healthy and glowing throughout the fall season.

Usually when I go to my Rheumatoid doctor and to physical therapy 2 times a week I always go with a full face of makeup and hair done. Unless I’m having a horrible painful day that I need to be admitted to the hospital. Today I decided that I wanted to wear purple because it’s the color for Lupus Awareness. I was surprise by all the compliments I received that I decided to write a beauty post about what makeup I was wearing. Now whenever I wear any shade of purple makeup this will be my way to share my reason why I rock purple…Lupus Awarness! I’m What Lupus Look’s Like.

Like many ladies I rarely wear red lipstick during the day. But when I do I actually like the shade of red on my lips. I’ve played with different textures but I seem to like matte, satin high shine lipsticks.

Being that it’s fall I was inspired by all the beautiful fall leaves and the gorgeous red Japanese maple tree in front of my home that I decided to rock a cherry bomb lip.

Here are 5 of my favorite lipsticks this season. Let’s see if one of your favorites made my list.

This morning I woke up feeling really good and pain free. I was feeling like the old me so I knew I wanted to play with my hair & makeup. My signature makeup look is a dark eye with a glossy nude lip. I prefer a bronzer with shimmer for a blush and sometimes a sheer pink blush.

I like a matte full coverage foundation because I have lots of moles on my face in a small lupus butterfly rash on my nose that I’m self-conscious about. So I always wear layers of foundation and powder.

I decided to do a blog post on this look because I received so many nice complements from the ladies in Connecticut about my makeup look.

Today’s matte and flawless finish makeup look was created with using the following makeup items.

Around this time last year I was experiencing the most most excruciating pains in my joints follow by numbness and tingling in my fingers and legs. After a month I knew self medicating with an aspirin and cocktails wasn’t going to cut it I finally told my husband to take me to a doctor. Well, $14,795.00 later I was diagnosed with Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Enlarged Heart, High Blood Pressure and Anemia (that I already knew I had). Lupus wasn’t something new to me because my mom twin sister passed from Lupus in 2004. Because it was caught very late I don’t remember much about it except that she was always tired and in pain. I was having symptoms for 9 years but it wasn’t consistent so I assumed it was my glamxurious career and lifestyle, traveling and working crazy hours. But this time something was different. I always joke that I’m the black female Benjamin Button because I don’t look my age. All of a sudden I now started to feel like an 90 year old woman needing assistant from my husband and kids to get out of bed, to walk up stairs, to get dress, and everything else a healthy person could do on their own.

This disease has completely changed my life since being diagnosed (extreme fatigue, pain, weakness, kidney & heart problems, vision, hair loss, weight gain, sensitivity to light & sun, memory fog, swelling in my feet, legs, & arms). Today I finally decided to talk about it because I’m ready to help to bring awareness to Lupus. Celebrities like Toni Braxton & Nick Cannon can only do so much. Their are so many people that look like me walking around with a secret, trying to hold on to their jobs and it’s scary because you don’t know who to share it with.

One of my friends Mirna Jose has been telling me since I’ve been diagnosed that I should write a post and share my story. So starting today not only will I continue to write about my life as a makeup artist but now as a makeup artist living with lupus. When I’m absent from my blog now you’ll understand why.